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Avalanche News

Avalanche/Kings Notebook

by
Aaron Lopez
/ Colorado Avalanche

Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk each scored twice and the Avs received a five-minute power play when Los Angeles forward Wayne Simmonds received a major penalty for butt-ending T.J. Galiardi in the third period, but the Kings topped the Avalanche by a 6-4 count behind Brad Richardson’s first career hat trick.

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Liles Ties Another RecordJohn-Michael Liles kept his assist/point streak going tonight when he picked up a helper on Hejduk’s second goal of the game. With the assist, Liles tied the NHL record for consecutive games with an assist by a defenseman to start a season. Ottawa Senators blue liner Filip Kuba originally set the record during the 2008-09 campaign.

“The assist streak is nice, but we just can’t give up points at home like this,” said Liles. “Especially fighting back and battling back to tie the game and to give up a short-handed goal is unacceptable.”

Hannan InjuredAvalanche defenseman Scott Hannan was injured during the first period of tonight’s game when he took a puck to the back of the head. Hannan returned briefly during the second period, but then left the game for good midway through the frame.

Van Der Gulik InForward David Van Der Gulik made his Avalanche debut tonight after being recalled from the Lake Erie Monsters on Wednesday and serving as a healthy scratch during Thursday’s game against the San Jose Sharks.

Van Der Gulik signed a one-year deal with Colorado on July 2, 2010. The Abbotsford, B.C. native had six previous games of NHL experience, which came during the 2008-09 season with the Calgary Flames.

“He’s played well in Lake Erie. Obviously he’s been their best forward upon call-up,” Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco said following Saturday’s morning skate. “Hopefully he can provide us with a lot of energy. We’re going to try to use him on the penalty kill and see what he’s got out there.”

In his first game with the Avs, Van Der Gulik played right wing on a line that included Cody McLeod and Kevin Porter and saw 5:20 of ice time, including 1:01 while Colorado was short-handed.

Liffiton RecalledWith captain Adam Foote sidelined with a concussion suffered Thursday against San Jose, the Avalanche on Friday recalled defenseman David Liffiton from Lake Erie. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound blueliner had been serving as Lake Erie’s captain, where he recorded two points (1g/1a) and a team-high 16 penalty minutes in six games this season.

Liffiton was a healthy scratch tonight, as Sacco elected to suit up six defensemen. The Avalanche had played the previous two games with seven defensemen in the lineup. Philippe Dupuis was the Avalanche’s lone healthy scratch at forward.

Twitter Hashtag ResultsAvs fans put up a good fight, but “lost” the NHL’s first-ever Twitter Hashtag Battle tonight to the Los Angeles Kings. The premise was simple…for each Twitter mention of “#GoAvs” during tonight’s game, the Avalanche would donate $1 to cancer research. The Kings would do the same for each “#GoKings” hashtag (with a $5,000 goal and cap for donations).

Colorado’s hashtag received 13,876 mentions, while Los Angeles’ hashtag received 29,374 mentions. The event generated a significant amount of exposure, filling the #1 and #2 spots on the top trending list in both the US and Canada on Twitter.